The Murder Secret (1988), originally released as Non aver paura della zia Marta and also known as Don't Be Afraid of Aunt Martha, is one of those wonderfully obscure pieces of late-'80s Italian horror that I've always had a soft spot for. Directed by Mario Bianchi and released as part of the "Lucio Fulci Presents" series, the film follows a family invited to the remote country home of the mysterious Aunt Marta. When they arrive, Marta is nowhere to be found and before long, somebody begins dispatching the family in increasingly gruesome fashion.
With Vinegar Syndrome now giving the film a new 4K restoration and UHD release, I figured this was the perfect time to revisit one of my favorite aspects of the movie: its music.
The score was composed, arranged and performed by Gianni Sposito (also known as John Sposito), and it's a fantastic example of late-'80s Italian electronic horror scoring. To underline Aunt Marta's madness, director Mario Bianchi wanted a theme that was at the same time obsessive, childish and disturbing. The result delighted the director so much that he used it continuously. In order to avoid excessive repetition, Sposito created some variations on the theme. Sposito builds the soundtrack around deceptively simple ideas, synth bells, hypnotic pulses, piano, strings, choirs and percussion that gradually layer together into something surprisingly lush and dramatic.
Some of the equipment documented in connection with Sposito's music from this period includes the Roland JX-10, Yamaha DX7, Yamaha CS-30L and Roland TR-808. Interestingly, I've also seen an E-mu Emax II sampler attributed to the setup, although I'm a little skeptical of that particular identification: the Emax II wasn't introduced until 1989. It's certainly possible that sampling was involved (the soundtrack contains obvious piano, choir and string sounds) but if an E-mu sampler was part of the original sessions, the earlier Emax would make more chronological sense. Until better documentation surfaces, I'm leaving that one as a question mark!
For my version, the Dave Smith Tempest handles the electronic side of the arrangement, providing the synth bells and repeating pulses along with the rhythmic tom patterns that propel the music forward. The Sequential Prophet X handles the more cinematic elements, including the piano, strings and eerie choir textures.
Individually, none of these parts are particularly complicated. What makes the piece so effective is the way all of those little motifs gradually interlock. The bells establish the melody, the pulses create movement, the toms add urgency and then the piano, strings and choir expand everything until what began as a relatively sparse electronic piece develops into a surprisingly big arrangement.
Sometimes that's my favorite kind of film music. It isn't necessarily about complex playing or throwing hundreds of sounds into an arrangement it's about finding a handful of strong musical ideas and knowing how to build them on top of one another.
I'm quite proud of how this one turned out, and with The Murder Secret finally receiving some much-deserved attention through Vinegar Syndrome's new restoration, this seemed like the perfect time to pay tribute to Gianni Sposito's wonderfully atmospheric score.
Hope you enjoy!
℗ Everett Dudgeon 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-FLwMDzrGI
1204 Replies
1622883 Views